Monday, October 05, 2009

All Types of Marketing

I was re-listening to recording of the Marketing call we did in January. It would be worth your listening to it again (or for the first time if you haven't heard it yet). The call hit on these topics: Referral programs; 7 tools of marketing; and some sales talk. Want the link for the MP3 file of the call? Just email me $7.99 or click here:

In Atlanta, the extra sessions on Sales and Marketing included creating a 7 Line Marketing Plan. Here are the slides to help you walk through your own plan. The key is the USP. Why should your qualified prospect buy from YOU and not Bell? If you don't have a compelling answer for that, you are in trouble. BTW, most say the answer is "our people", "we answer the phone", and "we are local". That can be a part of it, but that's not compelling enough. (That's all about your company and not at all about how that benefits the prospect -- and it is all about the prospect who is thinking, "What's in it for me?")

If you were in the social media session in Atlanta (slides here), you may have noted one person's incessant objectives to being on Twitter. I will be giving a tele-seminar on Social Media next Friday, Oct. 16th @ 3 PM Eastern. We will hit on questions like that.

I mentioned that Dell has been able to sell $2M worth of hardware via Twitter in 18 months. This person thinks a salesperson could have sold even more than that in the same time frame. Maybe. Maybe not. Twitter is a tool, a platform to communicate to a market segment. There are many tools for marketing: billboards, ads, YouTube, podcasts, bench ads, bus wraps, taxi signs, Facebook, blogging, websites, microsites, online ads/websites, LinkedIn, etc. My thought is that each website or platform has a different audience. Your specific message should be delivered via a platform that can reach your designated target audience. In this case, Dell was able to effectively hit a target market using this tool (Twitter) while tracking the results via coupon codes. That's the key.

Dell had a goal (sell hardware). A target (people using twitter). A clear, concise message (well, in a 140 characters it would have to be, right?) Call to action (coupon code and URL). Tracked it (coupon code).

There's this reluctance to getting on social media and using online marketing. Some of it is because many business owners don't have the time or don't get around to it or just aren't certain how to go about it. Well, we have an app for that! If you want to be listed on Local search sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp and MerchantCircle, we can do that for you. Download the form and brochure from here. Fill out a quick form, save it with your company name in the title, email it to me, send a check and it's done for you. We will even set up Facebook fan pages and LinkedIN company pages for you.

In any marketing, The List is important. Are they a target audience that can afford your services? The copy is important - Headline too if you want to capture attention. Does the message or story resonate with the List / target? Is there a Call to Action or Offer? What do you want the prospect to do? Repeat it. Rule of 7 touches.